It’s the oldest continually operating dragstrip in the country (did they stop racing at Pomona? – ed.) , giving drivers a place to run their hot rods and racing machines since 1955. Great Lakes Dragaway has been home to many an angry machine looking to make mincemeat out of the Christmas tree (at least, ever since they got away from the flagman starting system.) All sorts have come out to give the quarter-mile a run here in Wisconsin, from snowmobiles in the winter months to rocket cars. With all of those years checked off of the calendar, there’s no avoiding the fact that generations of families have grown up at the Dragaway, kids who went with Dad and his friends back in the day now returning with their own car, their own kids, to make their own memories.

This footage was shot in 1977 and should be considered a time machine look into the past. You will have to fill in your own memories of the engine noise, the hustle and bustle, the sounds of cars being tuned and making dry hops and such. But if you want accuracy, it doesn’t get more accurate than this, and no more genuine, either. From seeing Grumpy bustling around his Monza, busily tweaking the setup to his liking to the sketchiest thing passing off as a motorcycle leaving a Duster in it’s wake, it’s a throwback to the halcyon days of drag racing, when the magic was stronger than ever and the cars were howlers.